Portable assemblies of various types (such as sign assemblies) are commonly provided with supporting legs which are pivotably attached to the mechanism and have a folded position in which the assembly is made more compact for transport and storage, and at least one operative position in which the legs support the assembly. Also typically, the pivotable leg is provided with a locking element, commonly a locking pin, which releasably secures the leg into at least one operative position.
One such assembly including pivotable, lockable legs which may be secured into at least one operative position to support the assembly, is exemplified by the sign and sign stand assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,879, commonly owned by the owner-assignee of the present invention. Complete aspects of such sign holding assemblies are described in that patent and other commonly held U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,507,887, 4,548,379 and 4,572,473, and to the extent that the release mechanism of the present invention for such a locking pivotable leg relates to such sign holding assemblies, these commonly held patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Presently, the release of such locking elements for disengagement of the pivotable leg from its operative position is accomplished by manual (hand) operation of the user, acting directly on the locking element. Since the most stable designs for such pivotable legs commonly place the base of such an assembly low to the ground, the manual operation of the locking element requires the user to bend over close to the ground and to exert a considerable force in a transverse direction. This can be physically exerting to the user, particularly where the folding of a number of locking legs on a plurality of assemblies is required, as is typical when a number of sign holding assemblies are placed along a length of road under construction or repair.